Chairman Mao Meets Revolutionary Masses in Peking

[This article is reprinted from Peking Review, Vol. 9, #34, Aug. 19,
1966, pp. 9-11. Thanks are due to the WWW.WENGEWANG.ORG
web site for some of the work done for this posting.]

Chairman Mao says to the crowds: “You should pay attention to state affairs
and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end!”

AT 7:15 p.m. on August 10, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the
great leader of the Chinese people, came to the reception centre near the headquarters of
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and met Peking’s revolutionary masses
who were there to celebrate the Central Committee’s decision concerning the great
proletarian cultural revolution adopted on August 8.

Speaking to the crowds, Chairman Mao said: “You should
pay attention to state affairs and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through
to the end!”

This is a great call which Chairman Mao has issued to
the people of the whole country.

When our respected and beloved leader arrived, the crowds
burst out into a storm of applause, shouting:

“Chairman Mao is here! Chairman Mao is here!”

Tens of thousands of workers, peasants, students,
revolutionary cadres and other people in the capital jumped in their joy and went surging
towards Chairman Mao. The sounds of “Long live Chairman Mao!” and “Long, long life to
Chairman Mao” rolled out thunderously.

Amidst cheers and ovations, Chairman Mao mounted the
rostrum in the reception centre. His face beaming with smiles, our great leader looked at
the messages of greetings, and written pledges on display and cordially waved to the crowds
gathered in and around the centre. At that moment there was no telling how many hearts
throbbed with excitement, how many eyes shone with tears of joy and how many hands reached
out towards him.

Chairman Mao walked from one end of the rostrum to the
other. He stretched out both arms and shook hands warmly with those gathered immediately
around the rostrum. Chairman Mao talked to a number of comrades, and greeted the cheering
crowds around: “How are you, comrades? How are you, comrades?”

When leaving the reception centre, Chairman Mao waved
time and again to the elated crowds. Long after he left, crowds of people who had come to
deliver messages of greetings and written pledges remained there, excited and reluctant
to leave.

Many standing at the back pressed forward to shake hands
with those who had shaken hands with Chairman Mao. These latter said that they had thought
on the great occasion: “Oh! Chairman Mao, Chairman Mao! It is with these great hands of
yours that you have written so many revolutionary articles and pointed out to the Chinese
people the road of advance. It is you who have led us in toppling the three big mountains
of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism and are leading us in carrying out
socialist revolution and socialist construction. Today with these hands of yours you have
pointed out to us the direction of the great proletarian cultural revolution.” Many who
had shaken hands with Chairman Mao told everyone they met: “Come and shake hands with me!
My hands have just touched those of Chairman Mao!” Many who came too late to see Chairman
Mao said that it was also the greatest happiness to be able to walk where Chairman Mao had
just met the revolutionary masses. They sang over and over again The East Is Red,
A Ship Cannot Sail Without a Helmsman, and I Love Chairman Mao’s Works Best.

On learning the happy news that Chairman Mao had met
revolutionary masses in the capital, many people that very night wrote messages of greetings
and pledges on big sheets of red paper and sent them to the reception centre. In the
messages of greetings they said: “Long live Chairman Mao! Long, long life to Chairman Mao!”
They pledged to Chairman Mao their determination to hold still higher the great red banner
of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and always to follow Chairman Mao, marching forward in the teeth
of storms.

Many workers, members of the people’s communes on the
outskirts of the city, revolutionary intellectuals and revolutionary cadres said with deep
feeling: Our great leader Chairman Mao’s meeting with the masses at the headquarters of the
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in the upsurge of the current great
proletarian cultural revolution is an event of great historic significance. Our great leader
has the greatest trust in the masses, shows the greatest care for them and gives the
greatest support to their revolutionary action. Chairman Mao is linked heart to heart with
the masses.

They said: Chairman Mao’s meeting with the masses is a
great encouragement for the proletarian revolutionaries, tremendously heightening their will
and giving them inexhaustible strength. Under the brilliant leadership of our great leader
Chairman Mao, the great proletarian cultural revolution we are carrying out now will surely
win complete and thorough victory!

For several days after the publication of the decision of
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party concerning the great proletarian
cultural revolution on the night of August 8, revolutionary masses in the capital were
overwhelmed with joy and elation. Contingents went in unending streams to the reception
centre of the Party’s Central Committee to deliver their messages of greetings and written
pledges. Holding high red flags and carrying large portraits of the great leader Chairman
Mao, they beat drums and gongs, shouted slogans and sang revolutionary songs. Carrying
bouquets and wearing garlands, crowds of young people sang and danced — a manifestation of
their warmest love for Chairman Mao and the Party’s Central Committee and of their
determination to carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end.

The historic news that our great leader Chairman Mao had
met revolutionary masses in Peking was a tremendous inspiration to all revolutionary people
in the capital, bringing to a new high their revolutionary enthusiasm in hailing the
decision of the Party’s Central Committee concerning the great proletarian cultural
revolution.

On August 11 endless contingents of paraders came to the
reception centre from all directions. The messages of greetings and written pledges
delivered to the centre were too numerous to count. One representative of the revolutionary
masses after another made warm speeches before the loudspeaker. Tens of thousands of hearts
beat as one. A multitude of words rang out with the same meaning: Our respected and beloved
leader Chairman Mao, it was under your leadership that the great programme for the great
proletarian cultural revolution was worked out; your meeting with revolutionary masses has
added immeasurably to their strength. Like the sun you have illuminated the path for the
cultural revolution. In accordance with your instruction we will resolutely carry the
revolution through to the end.

Outstanding representatives of the members of the rural
people’s communes and production brigades on the outskirts of the city came all the way to
the centre to declare their aspirations to the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman Mao.
A representative of the poor and lower-middle peasants in the Golden Star Production Brigade
gave the pledge that with a hoe in one hand and a pen in the other they would deal a severe
head-on blow to the ghosts and monsters who took the capitalist road and opposed the Party,
socialism and Mao Tse-tung’s thought.

Like a spring wind, the happy news that the most respected
and beloved great leader of the people of all nationalities in China, Chairman Mao, had met
the revolutionary masses in the capital swept through the rest of the country. From border
towns in China’s north to Hainan Island off the southern coast and from the outposts on the
eastern coast to the frontier on the Pamir highland, people of all nationalities — workers,
peasants, soldiers, revolutionary intellectuals and revolutionary cadres — shouted in high
spirits: “Long live Chairman Mao!” and “Long, long life to Chairman Mao!” The sounds of the
revolutionary songs The East Is Red and A Ship Cannot Sail Without a Helmsman,
drums and gongs and firecrackers thundered.

Carrying big portraits of Chairman Mao and holding bouquets
and banners on high, unending columns of paraders streamed from morning till night to the
headquarters of local Party committees to express their joy. At this moment of the greatest
happiness, countless eyes filled with warm tears and the thoughts of many flew to the
capital. The revolutionary masses passed around the happy news to encourage one another.
They said: Chairman Mao is linked heart to heart with the revolutionary masses. Even though
we shouted “Long live Chairman Mao!” 10 million or 100 million times, we cannot give full
expression to our warm love for him and our gratitude to him.

The multitude of words spoken by the revolutionary masses
voiced the same feeling: When Chairman Mao shook the hands of the revolutionary masses in
the capital, it stirred the hearts of the hundreds of millions of people throughout the
country. Though not living in the capital, we are fighting shoulder to shoulder with its
revolutionary masses in the great cultural revolutionary movement. In meeting the
revolutionary masses of the capital, Chairman Mao has in effect met us. We are determined
to follow Chairman Mao’s teachings about paying attention to state affairs and carrying the
great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end.

The city of Shanghai was bubbling with joy on August 12.
Contingent after contingent of paraders converged on the office of the Party’s Shanghai
Municipal Committee to deliver their messages of greetings and written pledges.
Revolutionary students of the various nationalities in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music
held high red flags, played revolutionary music and performed the yangko dance as they
paraded through the streets.

In Canton, the front of the building of the Party’s
municipal committee was covered with written pledges and messages of greetings from the
broad revolutionary masses. On the day when workers of the Kwang-tung Hsinhua Printing
House started printing Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, a task assigned to them for
the first time, they learnt the news of Chairman Mao’s meeting with the capital’s
revolutionary masses. This was indeed a happy coincidence: two splendid events in a single
day, the workers said joyously. They expressed their determination to complete their
printing task quickly and successfully.

In Wuhan, radios and loudspeakers in the factories,
barracks and schools and on the farms were all surrounded with the revolutionary masses
listening to the great news. Their joyous thoughts flew to the capital, to Chairman Mao.

In Shaoshan, Siangtan County, the birthplace of Chairman
Mao, all the commune members and revolutionary cadres were jubilant. They said that the
moment they heard the happy news, they were reminded, as if they were meeting him once
more, of Chairman Mao’s return to Shaoshan in 1959. They declared that they would take
firm hold of the revolution and increase production, so that when Chairman Mao came again,
they could tell him about all the successes they had achieved.

In Urumchi, capital of the Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous
Region, the revolutionary masses of the various nationalities acclaimed the news in their
own tongues. They said: “We will always follow Chairman Mao’s teachings about paying
attention to state affairs and carrying the great proletarian cultural revolution through
to the end.” The revolutionary teachers, students, faculty members and workers of the
Sinkiang Medical College made a huge placard on which they wrote in big gold and red
characters the great call Chairman Mao made when he met the revolutionary masses in
Peking. Carrying numerous portraits of Chairman Mao, decorated with swathes of coloured
silk, the students danced national dances and cheered around the placard to the music of
national instruments.

In Lhasa, happiness reigned supreme on August 12. The
broad masses of the revolutionary people shouted in unison in the Tibetan and Han
languages: “Long live Chairman Mao! Long, long life to Chairman Mao!” With the greatest
joy, the Tibetan people sang: “Oh, majestic Himalayas! How can you compare with the lofty
spirit of Chairman Mao! Oh, Tsangpo River! My love for Chairman Mao will last as long as
your mighty and roaring waters!”

Throughout the country, labour heroes and outstanding
figures in all fields of work rejoiced to hear the happy news that Chairman Mao had met
the revolutionary masses in Peking. They made statements, or sent letters or written
pledges to the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman Mao. They unanimously held that
the news showed Chairman Mao’s very great trust in the revolutionary masses and his very
great concern, support and encouragement for them. They expressed their determination to
hold high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought and, closely following the
Party’s Central Committee and Chairman Mao, to surmount every difficulty and advance
courageously in the teeth of storms.

The news that Chairman Mao had met the revolutionary
masses in Peking was greeted with roaring cheers among all commanders and fighters of
the three services of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. They said: “When Chairman
Mao said to the revolutionary masses in Peking: ’You should pay attention to state
affairs and carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end,’ he was
making a great call to the people of the whole country. It is also a great call to all
the commanders and fighters of our army. In accordance with Chairman Mao’s instruction,
we will certainly brave the storms of class struggle and march forward.”

On hearing the news, the noted combat hero Mai
Hsien-teh declared with great elation: “We will always study Chairman Mao’s works,
follow his teachings and be his good soldiers. We will always follow Chairman Mao in
making revolution, resolutely carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through
to the end, crush the sinister gangs, sweep away all ghosts and monsters and defend the
Party’s Central Committee and Chairman Mao!”

Ti Chang-pao (centre), a shoe-maker in Peking, met the great leader
Chairman Mao at the reception centre near the headquarters of the
Party’s Central Committee. his comrades at the factory were greatly
inspired when on his return he told them about the meeting.